ExtremeTech Staff

If you’re a 3D graphics developer and are looking for a new 3D engine, check out this site. It’s a portal site for 3D engines with, at the time of this review, 643 engines for real-time graphics and VR. The site handily sorts the sites by when they’ve added new engines and it lists all of the engines available at each site, indicating which are newthat handy feature saves you lots of back-and-forth linking.

A superb site, filled with in-depth tests, analysis, and news of the computer hardware industry. Many, many sites try to attract readers through this combination, but Anand’s succeeds through measured, precise writing and analysis that sets it among the top four or five hardware sites. A typical article might attempt to analyze a certain aspect of a chip through testing, while assessing its impact on real-world performance. A must-bookmark.

Chick’s is a Gen-X gamer’s site that shines in its earnestness. It reviews video and sound cards, processors, speakers, cases, motherboards, cooling solutions, and the odd bit every now and then (e.g., digital watches). Their review style is commendableChick’s consistently starts its reviews by defining the intended market for a products, say a video board targeted at the value marketthen goes on to evaluate the product in that light, using the requisite benchmarks and their deep experience with similar products. The end result is a review in which you feel confident. Chick’s feature stories include product roundups and comparisons (of 1GHz chips and video boards, for example), company profiles, and issue pieces (memory speed and overclocking are two examples). All in all, a very satisfying site. And be sure to check out the 6 pages of case modscool stuff.

Sometimes sites that review a lot of different hardware are annoying because the site’s unfocused and the reviews are often poorly written to boot. Happily that’s not the case with Little White Dog. LWD reviews a bit of everything, including graphics cards, mice, network devices, cooling equipment, and the occasional CPU. Little White Dog successfully balances good technical knowledge, well-written reviews, and a sense of humor (in an optical mouse review, one of the ease-of-use “benchmarks” is “Popup Banners Closed Per Hour While Surfing for Porn”). In addition, the site has a good understanding of value for the reader (“not everyone who loves fragging can afford to go out and spend $300-$500 for one of the top-of-the-line [graphics] cards”) and a real-world understanding of how people use hardware (“We feel the best way to benchmark a video card is to test the card as it would be used in a real life situation. Who the hell wants to see it perform at 140 FPS with no sound?”).

Maximum 3D offers hardware and game reviews, feature articles, editorials, and forums. The reviewsin categories including graphics cards, motherboards, games, CPUs, and input devicesput products in perspective of their technology and competition, and they reflect deep experience in the product category. Reviews in some categoriesCPUs and graphics cards to name two–could be more current. Feature articles provide good tutorials on overclocking, benchmarking, and system admin (be sure not to miss the “Tales of Woe” series). But the features aren’t dated, so it’s hard to tell how current they are until you’ve retrieved them and started reading, a bother. Editorials are thoughtful and interestinga piece by two of the site editors on the game violence and the Columbine High School shootings and a look at vendor efforts to thwart piracy, for example. Lastly, the site has an active forum section, covering Geek Life, Hardware, and Games & Software.

Click on this site’s Hardware Reviews tab and the first thing that’ll impress you is the sheer volume of entries. The second thing you’ll notice is that most of the reviews53 at the time we lookedare for graphics cards. If nothing else, the Guru of 3D tries valiantly to live up to its site name. On the whole, it succeeds. Reviews cover the standard graphics-card benchmark tests and screen-shot samples, along with technical explanations and hands-on reports of board performance. And at times, the stories excel; a feature piece on nVidia drivers, for example lists (and provides a link for) all the Detonator drivers available for download, highlighting the official drivers, the Guru of 3D-recommended ones, and the at-your-own-risk drivers; the accompanying text explains the differences among them.